Bengal BJP ups ante against ‘fake’ voters, accuses Trinamool of ‘threatening’ BLOs

The Trinamool Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have been engaged in a war of words over the possibility of a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists in West Bengal, with the saffron party amplifying its rhetoric against “fake voters” and alleging that West Bengal’s District Magistrates and booth-level officers (BLOs) are being “threatened” by the Trinamool government.

“In booths 101, 102, 104, and 105 of the Baruipur East Assembly constituency, 100% of the residents are Hindus. Despite there being not a single person from the Muslim community residing there, the voter list suddenly shows the names of Muslim voters, none of whom are Indian citizens. All are Bangladeshis,” Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Legislative Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, said on Friday.

On Thursday, he had said that in a “closed-door meeting” at the State Secretariat, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had “scolded” BLOs travelling to Delhi for training and had ordered that no steps should be taken without permission. He also accused West Bengal Chief Secretary Manoj Pant of having “verbally instructed District Magistrates to replace the 1,000 BLOs who were trained in Delhi.”

“I want to tell the Chief Secretary that you cannot lawfully change BLOs appointed after July 5 without a valid reason and the consent of the Chief Electoral Officer. The Chief Minister cannot intervene in election-related matters… I am reassuring everyone that no BLO can be changed by the Chief Minister or Chief Secretary,” Mr. Adhikari said, addressing the press outside the West Bengal Assembly on Thursday. 

He also accused Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of “threatening” BLOs and DMs in a meeting on Monday at Bolpur in Birbhum district, where she said she was not informed about 1,000 BLOs being taken to Delhi for training and that BLOs should not harass “genuine” voters.

“Remember, the EC comes in during elections, but you all are employees of the State government. Do not harass people unreasonably… If you receive any instructions, inform the Chief Secretary first. You all are taking sudden decisions without informing us,” Ms. Banerjee said, addressing district officials during the administrative meeting.

Meanwhile, Trinamool leaders have said that a “covert exercise” towards a National Register of Citizens (NRC) is being conducted in the name of SIR.

“An NRC process is being initiated in the name of voter list revision… if anyone is dropped from the voters’ list, protest. Demand to know from your BLO why you were removed as a genuine voter. This is your constitutional and democratic right,” the Chief Minister had said in a public address on Tuesday.

The next day, Trinamool’s national general secretary Abhishek Banerjee alleged that the Election Commission and the BJP were trying to suppress voters, because “if people are allowed to vote freely, they will be defeated.”

On Friday, Trinamool MPs stood outside Parliament and agitated against the SIR in Bihar, which they called “silent invisible rigging.”

According to the website of the Election Commission, SIRs are to be conducted across the country, requiring electors missing from the last SIR electoral roll to ‘prove their eligibility’ as a voter by submitting government-issued identification documents. However, this has incited a strong reaction from Opposition parties over the possible loss of voting rights for lakhs of voters who might not be able to submit documents on time.

With training sessions being held for BLOs of West Bengal, and the electoral roll of the 2002 SIR in the State being made public recently, many in the political circles believe that an SIR could be conducted in West Bengal ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections.